Improve Fast In Go

© Milton N. Bradley 2008



Chapter 5 Solution 5

 

Solution 5 B1 is the key play!

Although the White corner stones were already within Black’s Sector Line, with W1 (or “a”, “b”, or “c”) White could easily have cut that Sector Line and thus put the baseless (= weak) Black 7- stone group on the left in danger.

Instead, the simple B1 completely encloses the White corner stones within essentially unbreakable Black Sector Lines, so with still incomplete eyeshape White must do something about that immediately or die!

The key White shape point in the corner is “d”, and a weak player would be well advised to play there immediately to assure White’s eyes.




But 5D White has calculated that after W2 he can still live even if Black plays at “d”. (You might want to experiment with this position and prove this for yourself.)

White also recognizes that the Black group to the right isn’t yet completely settled, and that the territory at the top isn’t yet sealed off either. This combination of assets means that W2 with its aggressive potential is considerably better than the purely defensive “d”, so that’s what White played!

For its part, B1 does far more than merely enclose the White corner, important as that is. By preventing W1 (or W“a”. “b”, or “c”), B1 strengthens his own eyeless 7 stone group on the left so that there isn’t an immediate need to support it - and that gives Black Sente to play a big point elsewhere after the necessary W2 defends in the corner.

On the other hand, if Black were to neglect to play at 1, a White play there would happily seize Sente by splitting Black, and thus completely reverse the flow of this game!

Although B1 superficially seems innocuous and slow and is the type of (actually essential) play that can easily be missed by the novice, it’s also a move whose need and power are readily revealed by application of the Sector Line concept!


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